Fishing for carp, waiting for steelhead

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Earth Quotes: John Voelker’s ‘Testament of a Fisherman’

Cellphones take on a whole different identity in a landfill! (Courtesy Treehugger)

John Voelker, aka Robert Traver, did a whole lot in his life, ranging from lawyering, to writing the best-selling novel, “Anatomy of a Murder” in the late 1950s. And he loved fly fishing.As you can see, he wrote in an age when the telephone was a stationary object. Once you’ve read his excellent testament, please take a moment to fill out the survey.

Do you leave your cellphone at home when you fish? (Then how do you shoot your “grip ‘n’ grin” hero shots?).

See you on the river, Jim Burns

Testament of a Fisherman

“I fish because I love to; because I love the environs that trout are found, which are invariably beautiful,

and hate the environs where crowds of people are found, which are invariably ugly; because of all the

television commercials, cocktail parties and assorted social posturing I thus escape; because, in a world

where most men spend their lives doing things they hate, my fishing is at once an endless source of

delight and an act of small rebellion; because trout do not lie or cheat and cannot be bought or bribed or

impressed by power, but respond only to quietude and humility and endless patience; because I suspect

that men are going along this way for the last time, and I for one don’t want to waste the trip; because

mercifully there are no telephones on fishing waters; because only in the woods can I find solitude without

loneliness; because bourbon out of an old tin cup tastes better out there; because maybe someday I will

catch a mermaid; and, finally, not because I regard fishing as being so terribly important but because I

suspect that so many other concerns of men are equally unimportant — and not nearly so much fun”